So It Goes

I was telling my husband about a post our future son-in-law had put on Facebook and suggested that he (my husband) might like to join Facebook too.  He had always been resistant to the idea, but I thought that translating our son-in-law’s posts might be a helpful tool in my husband’s bid to learn German (our son-in-law is from Berlin and regularly posts in his native tongue). He didn’t say no. 

Heartened by his non response, I went further.  He could also check out the photographs of our daughter (who now lives in Berlin)  and keep in touch with her more easily.  For that matter, he could even invite all of our children to be his friends and keep up with all of them more easily.  He only needs to have eight or nine friends.  That would do. He didn’t say no.

And so I mentioned this to daughter in question and said that perhaps she could help him set up his page when we returned from our holidays.

A few days later, I heard him say his first ‘no’.  Actually it was more like  a wailing ‘noooooooo’.  Our daughter mustn’t have heard the bit about helping him when he got home.  She  also missed the bit about a handful of friends.  

She and her intended had in fact had a lovely time setting up his Facebook, complete with PhotoShopped pictures of Mr Berlin himself.  There he was in a jaunty chef’s hat preparing a meal in our kitchen with my husband.  There he was riding a camel in Morocco, tailing ourselves and our daughter.  There they were in their kitchen in Berlin.  Given the fact that we have as yet to meet (except via Skype), it prompted a flurry of response from my husband’s many new ‘friends’. 

The Berlin leg of the family thought it was hilarious.  She couldn’t have her dad as a Facebook ‘loser’ with less than 10 friends, could she?  And weren’t those photos lifelike?

He’s stopped saying ‘no’ now and gives me regular updates on what the family and his friends (who are actually friends) are up to.  He even enjoys checking out whether his translation of his overseas cooking buddy is accurate.  Sometimes he gives me so much information, I have to stifle a quiet ‘nooooooo’.

- Linda Muller